The Eleventh
Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected Birmingham police officers’ claims
of qualified immunity in a lawsuit challenging the use
of chemical sprays on high school students. The circuit court’s ruling on Friday comes on
the heels of another incident the week before when a crowd of students were doused
with pepper spray at Birmingham’s Jackson-Olin High School by police officers responding
to a fight. In the 11th Circuit case, Birmingham’s police chief argued that he was not liable in his
official capacity and that his school resource officers (SROs) were entitled to
qualified immunity and summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ claims. The circuit
court upheld the district court’s denial of summary judgment and dismissed the officers’
state-law claims for lack of appellate jurisdiction. The Southern Poverty
Law Center filed the federal class action lawsuit on behalf of 100 Birmingham high
school students who had been sprayed with mace by city police officers acting
as SROs. The
suit alleges that police officers used chemical spray on students in
violation of the students’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights against
excessive force.
The SPLC advocates
that schools end the practice, which it says exposes students to blistering and
scarring of the eyes, chemical burns, and asthma attacks. The district court
below noted that “[a]lthough
SROs are trained professionals who make an effort to restrict the chemical
spray to the specific student in question, chemical spray is nonetheless an
aerosol that knows no boundaries and makes no distinction between misbehaving
and compliant students.” Read the opinion in
J.W., et al. v. A.C. Roper, Chief of the Birmingham Police Department, et al. here.